Bedřich Stigler

“Well, I think it was November 22 at the latest, it was at the Milan Bruchtr, there was actually founded Civic Forum in Břeclav. And I think that we were somehow in the first place in the South Moravian region, as if we were quite fast. And we made a statement about what we were trying to do, and we tried to get it among the people, which was hard work, because we could only dream of a printer or copier or anything alike. So there were nine copy papers in a single typewriter. However, it was among the people, it was already organized, we were really trying to push the Bolshevik away from the rule. Then there were some talks during the county committee meetings, the city council, and so on, but it was more of a talk that they understood us, because it was likely that they could no longer send any tanks against us. That they understand us, but that we should be careful not to drop cigarette buts on the ground when we demonstrate; that there was no mess. And that we should not glue the shop windows with no logos or slogans as they had Christmas decorations there. That was just so ridiculous from today's perspective. It was then explained to us, but it was unstoppable. Already the demonstrations were intensifying in all cities, and it was more or less clear that it would in some way be heading towards a result. At that time, I had no idea that the communists would really let go of the rule.”

“So we prepared the Hands of Europe, I don't know whose idea it was anymore, but that would be great, because we are near the border if could symbolically make a chain of hands on the border and continued to the Austrians, and they would have gone on. Or, at least, we would like to shake our neighbours´ hands, and show that we want to go back to Europe. So it was prepared in this kind of way, I even went to the border guards then to announce that it was going to happen, I know we talked to an officer who told us we couldn't do it, it was a border band that we broke the law, and I replied that I didn't come to ask for permission, that I just came to tell them that it would happen, and he told me if we could do it two kilometres further away that it was no longer his company. That was also ridiculous, and even if we were to guarantee that nobody would cross the state border. But the fact is that the border guards then cut out the fence for us. We also informed the Mayor of Reintal on the Austrian side who took it nicely. At the event, the Austrians were waiting for us there, and the Hands of Europe really took place, there could be three or four thousand people certainly, because it was really a chain of hands. Except we failed to keep the promise that we would not cross the state border, which did not exceed the Austrians to us, but the Czechs did not care much about it. Then I know that it was such a curiosity that we were driving around Reintal with a megaphone in the evening urging Czech citizens to come back to the Republic.”